Jerry Brown Goes Young With Twitter Tax Play

Demographics show governor might be looking to rally young voters to his cause.

Twitter is not just for prematurely killing celebrities anymore. Now governor's actually use it to release their tax plans.

Look no further than Calif.'s own elected leader, Jerry Brown, for evidence of a politician using the San Francisco-based social-networking site for political means.

The governor released a tax plan Monday to restore the state's fiscal health via Twitter -- you can read a full PDF of the letter here

Brown actually could not get his plan out in the 140-character limit imposed by Jack Dorsey and company -- he needed more around 1,000. 

But the subtle hint was given just by the governor taking to Twitter to link to his open letter announcing his plan.

"The stark truth is that without new revenues, we will have no other choice but to make deeper and more damaging cuts to schools, universities, public safety and our courts," Brown wrote in his letter.

Much like his more than 1.09 million followers on Twitter, the governor is aiming to rally the younger demographic of the state.

His plan to put potential tax hikes on the ballot is not likely to excite older, more established voters.

The four sectors of society that Brown says will be impacted without new revenues all disproportionately impact California's young demographic -- who also happen to be the majority on Twitter.

The average users of Twitter are young, female and white.

A recent study by Ad Age looked at both Twitter web traffic and the information users put in their profiles for their findings:

  • Less than 10% of the US population uses Twitter
  • The audience slightly favors women – 54.6% versus 45.4%
  • 83.8% of the network are aged between 18-49
  • 63.7% of all users are white

The data shows that Brown was most likely reaching white women aged about 33.5-years-old, statistically speaking.

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